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Friday, April 28, 2017

U.S. first-quarter growth weakest in three years

The U.S. economy
grew at its weakest pace in three years in the first quarter as consumer
spending barely increased and businesses invested less on inventories,
in a potential setback to President Donald Trump's promise to boost
growth.
Gross
domestic product increased at a 0.7 percent annual rate also as the
government cut back on defense spending, the Commerce Department said on
Friday. That was the weakest performance since the first quarter of
2014.
The economy grew at a
2.1 percent pace in the fourth quarter. Economists polled by Reuters
had forecast GDP rising at a 1.2 percent pace last quarter. The survey
was, however, conducted before Thursday's advance data on the March
goods trade deficit and inventories, which saw many economists lowering
their first-quarter growth estimates. (Continues)